Edward the Confessor

Edward the Confessor (1003-5 January 1066) was the king of England from 1042 to 1046, succeeding Harthacnut and preceding Harold Godwinson.

Biography
Edward was the son of King Edmund Ironside, whose defeat by the Danes at the 1016 Battle of Ashingdon led to the line of King Cnut the Great of Denmark ruling over England for over 25 years. He succeeded his half-brother Harthacnut, also the son of Emma of Normandy (the wife of both his grandfather Aethelred the Unready and King Cnut the Great), restoring the House of Wessex to the throne. During his reign, Edward had a wife, but he had no children. He sent nobleman Harold Godwinson to the Duchy of Normandy in 1064 to give Duke William a promise that he would succeed him on his death, but in 1066, Edward told Harold that he would be his heir on his deathbed. When he died on 5 January 1066, the two nobles, as well as king Harald Hardrada, fought over control of England, culminating in the Norman Conquest.